NOPD arrests three outside St. Bernard complex

New Orleans Police arrested at least three people, including a documentary filmmaker and a nationally known activist, at a small protest outside the shuttered St. Bernard housing complex on Saturday afternoon.

Rick Rowley, a journalist with Big Noise Films who has covered conflicts in South Africa and Palestine, was handcuffed outside the 7th Ward housing development, activists at the scene said. The complex, which never re-opened after Hurricane Katrina, is slated for demolition.

Police also arrested activist Cheri Honkala, a former homeless mother who formed the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in 1991 to house and feed Philadelphia's poor, activists said.

A New Orleans police spokeswoman could not immediately provide information on what charges were filed against those arrested.

But Rowley said that officers started the conflict by picking on a few protesters. "We were assaulted by police oficers," said Rowley, after he was released Saturday evening. "We were never told to move. I was never even told I was arrested. I was dragged away in handcuffs."

Rowley said that he was among three people arrested and that all are due to appear at Municipal Court on Monday morning. He was booked with "crossing a police line" and resisting arrest, he said.

Stephanie Mingo, a former St. Bernard resident, said she watched an officer grab Rowley by his neck and manhandle the cameraman on top of a police cruiser.

"Rick kept saying, 'I'm a journalist. I'm a journalist,'" Mingo said.

Rowley said that a third person was arrested, an activst he knew only as "J.R." Rowley said that he heard an officer say, "Get 'big mouth,'" in reference to J.R.

NOPD spokeswoman Officer Shereese Harper said Saturday evening that she was still sorting out details of the arrests and would get back witih reporters as soon as she learned what happened from the arresting officers.

Honkala was booked with "impersonating a police officer" after police spotted her trying to wave on passing cars safely past the St. Bernard, said Rowley.

Rowley said he was filming at the time, along with several other camera operators. Rowley's films have included "The Fourth World War" and other reporting from the front lines of military conflicts in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq.

"I've never seen a police force this thuggish and unprofessional," said Rowley, who added that Honkala was placed in a holding cell with ten men before her release.

Witnesses to the arrests said the protest had been peaceful and even included a brass band performance before police arrived. By 3 p.m., the protesters had relocated to the city's Central Lock-Up to wait for word of the arrestees.

Activists have stepped up protests and actions over the past week as officials with the Housing Authority of New Orleans and other city leaders grapple with legal questions hanging over the planned demolition of four developments: St. Bernard, Lafitte, C.J. Peete and B.W. Cooper. HANO, which is under the control of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wants to replace the aging complexes with modernized, mixed-income neighborhoods.

The City Council is expected to vote Thursday on whether to grant demolition permits at the sites.